Shuttleworth: Ubuntu tablets won’t be as “jarring” to users as Windows 8

After today's announcement that Canonical has created a tablet interface for Ubuntu Linux, company founder Mark Shuttleworth described his ambitions and answered questions from reporters in a conference call.

He addressed many topics, including how Ubuntu for tablets and phones will differ from Windows 8, Canonical's discussions with hardware makers and carriers, potential release timelines for phones and tablets, whether Ubuntu devices will be "hackable," and the chances of Canonical finally becoming profitable.

Let's take a look at the highlights.

How Ubuntu adapts to all devices—and one-ups Windows 8

Canonical is aiming to release one operating system that works across desktops, phones, and tablets. Literally, the same software would be installed on any of those types of hardware, with the user interface changing depending on the device.

A phone or tablet, when docked with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, would become a full PC. Or, hardware makers could release PCs that double as tablets, very much like what they do today with Windows 8. The difference, Shuttleworth said, is that Ubuntu won't force a "jarring" shift onto users when switching between form factors.

What we have that's unique is a set of transitions between these form factors, which in each case is very minimal. When you transition from the tablet to the desktop, things don't move around. Your indicators, things like network status and time, they don't jump around on screen, they stay in the same place. That's what's really different certainly between our approach to convergence and for example Windows 8, where when you're in the desktop mode, which looks like Windows 7, and suddenly you get the new tile-based interface, it's a stark transition that can be jarring for users.

In our case, you can almost think of those as gentle phase changes. When you go from phone to tablet you're stretching the device in very obvious ways. People who've used iOS on both phones and tablets would expect that. What's nice about Ubuntu is the phase change to the PC experience up from the tablet really just introduces window management, and it also introduces things like menus and dialog boxes. You aren't moving things around in dramatic ways.

The big problem, of course, is that Windows 8 is widely available on many kinds of hardware, whereas Ubuntu for tablets is still just in the planning phases. An early version of the Ubuntu phone and tablet code will be made available Thursday for installation on Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 devices. This will help developers build apps for the platform, but Canonical told us it's not far enough along for in-depth reviews and tests. That won't stop us from trying it out, but we're many months away from finding out whether the software will meet Shuttleworth's lofty descriptions in daily use.

Lining up partners and getting devices to market

Shuttleworth was recently quoted by the Wall Street Journal as saying that Ubuntu phones will hit consumers' hands in October. That's not quite true, it turns out. He explained today that what he actually said is that the phone interface will be ready for Ubuntu 13.10 in October, combining the phone and desktop code into one release.

Of course, people who own supported phones like the Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 4 will be able to run the ready-for-the-real-world version in October. But Shuttleworth doesn't expect carriers to ship entirely new phones running Ubuntu until Q1 2014.

"Carriers are going to take a little longer to put those devices through their network testing and put them into market," he said.

Mark Shuttleworth explains Ubuntu for tablets.

The tablet interface will be baked into the main Ubuntu code base by version 14.04, the April 2014 release. "We will be able to complete the phone user experience before we complete the tablet user experience, because essentially the phone user experience is nested inside the tablet user experience," he said. The 14.04 release will also be the first time Ubuntu phones will be able to dock with monitors and keyboards to become full PCs—that capability won't be in 13.10.

If everything goes exceedingly well, release dates could be sooner than expected, he said. There's also enough uncertainty that Shuttleworth thinks it's possible that Ubuntu tablets will ship before Ubuntu phones.

"It's not yet clear to us whether you'll see phones in the market before you see tablets, or tablets in the market before you see phones," he said. "We expect all of these user experiences to be converged in Ubuntu 14.04."

Hardware partnerships will be crucial, and Shuttleworth said Ubuntu has developed a deep relationship with a chip vendor to optimize Ubuntu for smartphones and tablets:

This will accelerate specific areas of the platform in location and telephony, areas where we don't bring a very great deal of historical expertise, but they do. It has catalyzed the manufacturing sector, the ODMs [original design manufacturers] and OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], and given them the confidence to say they stand ready to make Ubuntu devices. We'll announce the details of that after MWC [Mobile World Congress, an event next week in Barcelona].

It has been a very significant step forward and somewhat unexpected. I had expected us to engage with carriers first and then hardware partners and silicon partners.

Canonical says it has spoken with device makers and had talks with carriers in North America, Europe, and China to plan launch devices. No company names were revealed.

Ubuntu for phones and tablets will run on both ARM chips and Intel Atom ones, but primarily ARM. "We have more active engagement around ARM simply because of their existing penetration in the mobile sector," Shuttleworth said.

Canonical won't be making its own hardware, so don't expect any Surface-like devices.

"Our strength is really in the user experience and in the integration of the software platform," Shuttleworth said. "We see ourselves as supporting or accelerating hardware partners as they innovate and figure out this convergence story."

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

Making a user interface that's basically the same for a 4" phone, a 10" tablet, and a 27" desktop, with just a "gentle phase shift" in UI instead of "jarring" changes, is easier said than done. I like the concept but I'm skeptical of how well it'll live up to the promise.

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

May have to do something with the fact that these apps are rather useless on a tablet? Honestly, I have been using Linux since 1994 but talking about X11 apps on a tablet as "advantage" is more than pointless.

Personally, when I watched the video? I saw more than a few things that made me think of Windows 8/RT. And, as someone who actually loves W8/RT and Metro? This is awesome for me. I hope they do a great job, and provide some great ideas for Microsoft to steal

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

That's the Windows trap though... that you can run "desktop" applications on mobile. No one wants that - even people who think they want it, don't. They just don't know it yet.

If Ubuntu on a tablet can bring Kindle or Nook, Netflix, Hulu, Magazines and Newpaper apps and gaming - they're in business. Otherwise, it will stay very niche.

I think the advantage Ubuntu has over Windows is Ubuntu (Linux generally also) supports several different desktop environments already. Unity is the default in Ubuntu but others can easily be installed and used. Using this idea I could see Ubuntu having several Unity derived desktops designed for different form factors. Each form factor could have its own Unity tailored to the characteristics of the form factor. If Canonical can determine the form factor and select the optimized desktop it could be a winner. A common core underneath with appropriate interfaces on top.

Interesting Shuttleworth stated that keyboards and mice will still be used in the future on some form factors. He implies that Ubuntu most work well for desktops and laptops and not force those users into using an interface really best suited for tablet.

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

I don't really find this reason very compelling.. I've been playing around with it on my N7 and its basically unusable for the vast majority of desktop apps compiled for ARM.

Not to mention if people thought that the windows desktop UI would be a nightmare in the tablet space, wait until you try out x-window apps that tend to have very small UI elements, many menus and configuration that you are going to have a hard time doing with your finger..

I'm still holding judgement until I see polished version of the OS, but I don't really see how ARM-compiled apps are a major advantage as it currently stands.. Its not like we are talking about the Windows ecosystem in which you have a large userbase and enterprise market..

My guess.. just like any OS on a mobile based device today, the OS will live an die with its mobile/tablet centric applications, not its legacy functionality.

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

That's the Windows trap though... that you can run "desktop" applications on mobile. No one wants that - even people who think they want it, don't. They just don't know it yet.

If Ubuntu on a tablet can bring Kindle or Nook, Netflix, Hulu, Magazines and Newpaper apps and gaming - they're in business. Otherwise, it will stay very niche.

So... any compelling reason to buy this over an Android tablet if I'm a mass market customer? Serious non-troll question. This seems to be a product with no reason to exist other than to attempt to give Ubuntu some relevance in tablets.

I think his vision is right, having one OS that switches the UI based on the form factor it's on. And while I love Ubuntu and canonical's philosophy, I don't think their approach of "let's announce it, throw it on the wall, and see if it sticks" is a profitable and hence a correct one.

I think that creates a confusing experience for the user, the main source of revenue. Sure, tablet android has some nice features, but is it really a smooth and consistent experience as iOS on iPad? If I switch from a nexus tablet to a galaxy, can I expect everything to behave exactly the same, or will things run and respond differently?

I am hoping that iOS7 would become iOS X, switching between iOS and OS X depending on whether the device is docked. Place your iPad into a dock, and voilà (aka wha-la), UI switches to mouse input, conventional GUI and sandboxed multitasking mode, accessing the same data that the iOS apps use. iPad already has Exchange (Mail and calendar), Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Safari, Facetime, Netflix, HBO, Facebook, and if it had Word and Excel, and Terminal it would be a hell of a tablet/lightweight computer.

So... any compelling reason to buy this over an Android tablet if I'm a mass market customer? Serious non-troll question. This seems to be a product with no reason to exist other than to attempt to give Ubuntu some relevance in tablets.

Too soon to tell, I think. Their proposed vision is appealing to me, but I'm also a "3-screener" with Microsoft right now. Having that sort of consistent experience with your three major screens (tv/game console, phone, computer/tablet) is pretty nice, even at the limited implementation I've got right now. I'm sure someone with a Mac, iOS device and AppleTV likely had good idea of the potential as well. Same with you and Android, I'd expect (how many SmartTVs use Android?) .

Globally it could get itself some market, maybe halo out to the desktop. No telling. Now, will I be able to play Steam games on the tablets? That'd be nice

So... any compelling reason to buy this over an Android tablet if I'm a mass market customer? Serious non-troll question. This seems to be a product with no reason to exist other than to attempt to give Ubuntu some relevance in tablets.

I don't think anybody could say until it's released.

I have multiple iDevices, and honestly the video makes it look slicker than those, which are much slicker than any of the Android devices I've played with (IMO, YMMV). But as others have said, it's doubtful that X-Windows apps will be nice to use on a phone or tablet. So it'll all come down to what apps get bundled and what people write specifically for the form factor(s) supported.

I suspect the level of 'hackability' of Ubuntu on a tablet will be what attracts most people to them though. As a programmer, that's an exciting proposition. Unfortunately, it's also a rather small niche. If they added Ruby (my current favorite language) as a supported language, I'd love to get one to play with. None of the currently supported languages excite me though.

I hope that split-screen multitasking feature will be added to the desktop interface too, and not just for tablets. That would sound really useful with the top panel and hud display.

I love it with Windows 8. Really, all they can do now is improve on it, and hopefully they will

I can see it improve really well - basically, the HUD lets you type search commands from the menus within apps. If they allow the split-screen, and allow each app menu to integrate into the top panel, you could then use the HUD to search menu items from each app on the split-screen. Although if poorly implemented this might cause a mess of app menus on the top bar...

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

That's the Windows trap though... that you can run "desktop" applications on mobile. No one wants that - even people who think they want it, don't. They just don't know it yet.

If Ubuntu on a tablet can bring Kindle or Nook, Netflix, Hulu, Magazines and Newpaper apps and gaming - they're in business. Otherwise, it will stay very niche.

Ubuntu will be switching to Wayland sooner or later, and I imagine sooner since they're pushing a phone platform now. X.org is horribly bloated.

The experience between a 100% touch UI and a 100% desktop (mouse + keyboard) UI is too different. I mean, in Linux terms all you really need is a kernal that will run on the hardware, a window manager that understands touch interface, and a DE that understands that it's going to interact with either a finger or a stylus. But from Canonical's approach to a phone that's closely unified with Unity, I'm not sure their first take is going to be something that I want to use. It's certainly not going to be able to pull stuff from the wide repositories it currently enjoys.

Sudden random thought: what if they use voice recognition on the CLI? How do you pronounce "fsck?" fuh-SACK?

What I do find promising is the open source nature of Unix. If there are enough people, then you get forked DE's, and forked WM's (if there was ever something that was begging for a tiled manager...), and eventually forked distros. Even if you're like me in that you hate Unity and you're not even that fond of Canonical (notice here I didn't say Ubuntu), if they manage some success here, it's ultimately a Good Thing™ for future possibilities.

I hope that split-screen multitasking feature will be added to the desktop interface too, and not just for tablets. That would sound really useful with the top panel and hud display.

I love it with Windows 8. Really, all they can do now is improve on it, and hopefully they will

I had a friend cry uncle at the limitations of the iPad the other day. We were doing a Skype video call and we were going to read some material in parallel and discuss as we went along. Instant failure for the iPad as a device - you can't read a document in Safari and stay on a Skype call at the same time since there is no true multitasking. Freezing an app in memory to allow quick resume is not multitasking, it is sequential tasking, essentially in the same vein as Windows 3.0.

I've actually noticed some of the early Windows 8 advertisement videos showed us Skype / video conferencing docked while having a document or similar using the larger screen space. That snippet should get front and center attention every time Microsoft advertises Windows 8 or Surface. It's truly killer functionality no one else has at the moment, and of extreme reinforcing appeal to the business segment, not to mention education.

Getting back to the actual story though, it will be really great once someone fuses the Android framework into Ubuntu. I could see investing in an N7 well worth it if I could run Ubuntu and Android simultaneously (and have both pools of apps), though some of the efforts to get a fully functional Android x86 VM working could make equally nice on Surface Pro and similar.

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

May have to do something with the fact that these apps are rather useless on a tablet? Honestly, I have been using Linux since 1994 but talking about X11 apps on a tablet as "advantage" is more than pointless.

It's not for when you're using it as a tablet but rather when it is docked. This is pretty obvious when you use an RT tablet/netbook thing like the Surface.

You already have a keyboard and mouse attached but all you can use is desktop IE and Office? I know I've felt that it was a little pointless that way, using it like a gimped netbook.

it looks slick and attractive but i fail to see how this s any different from windows 8. even the snap feature s the same right down to the app resizing to a mobie interface on the minor window.

i get that you can run the phone app. i get it, but is it compelling? and is it even necessary?

why this and not win 8 pro like the w700 or surface?

it's clear this is a superior os for mobility and tablets over android and ios, but despite pitching it as having done it better than windows, fr all intents and purposes, it's a reskinned windws 8 without access to the desktop unless you remote desktop (if i'm reading it right).

Canonical is aiming to release one operating system that works across desktops, phones, and tablets. Literally, the same software would be installed on any of those types of hardware, with the user interface changing depending on the device.

I had a friend cry uncle at the limitations of the iPad the other day. We were doing a Skype video call and we were going to read some material in parallel and discuss as we went along. Instant failure for the iPad as a device - you can't read a document in Safari and stay on a Skype call at the same time since there is no true multitasking. Freezing an app in memory to allow quick resume is not multitasking, it is sequential tasking, essentially in the same vein as Windows 3.0.

I'm not sure what was going on with your friend's iPad, but using Safari or another app is not a problem while on a Skype call-- I do it all the time. Perhaps he had a very old version of Skype and/or iOS?

it's clear this is a superior os for mobility and tablets over android and ios, but despite pitching it as having done it better than windows, fr all intents and purposes, it's a reskinned windws 8 without access to the desktop unless you remote desktop (if i'm reading it right).

Actually that's an unknown as well, while they have some features that may be arguably better than Android/iOS, we don't know if the rest of OS is at least on par with Android/iOS.

If not, certain UI niceties won't save it, and even if its UI is indeed superior, it will require A LOT more advantages going for it in order to succeed. WebOS is the perfect example, superior usability (IMHO), terrible sales.

I had a friend cry uncle at the limitations of the iPad the other day. We were doing a Skype video call and we were going to read some material in parallel and discuss as we went along. Instant failure for the iPad as a device - you can't read a document in Safari and stay on a Skype call at the same time since there is no true multitasking. Freezing an app in memory to allow quick resume is not multitasking, it is sequential tasking, essentially in the same vein as Windows 3.0.

I'm not sure what was going on with your friend's iPad, but using Safari or another app is not a problem while on a Skype call-- I do it all the time. Perhaps he had a very old version of Skype and/or iOS?

He's doing video call, meaning that they want one part of screen to show Skype video while opening another app in the rest of the screen.

Oops, I missed the part about video. I've actually never tried minimizing Skype while on a video call.

Anyway, iOS itself can do true multitasking, which is why Skype audio calls and other sound-producing applications can run in the background. I'll have to try a video call though-- it doesn't make sense that that wouldn't work, even if the call had to be downgraded to audio only.

The main advantage this OS has right now is not the new mobile interface, but rather the ability to run normal ARM-compiled apps from the Ubuntu repositories. It's odd that we haven't been hearing much about this.

I don't really find this reason very compelling.. I've been playing around with it on my N7 and its basically unusable for the vast majority of desktop apps compiled for ARM.

Not to mention if people thought that the windows desktop UI would be a nightmare in the tablet space, wait until you try out x-window apps that tend to have very small UI elements, many menus and configuration that you are going to have a hard time doing with your finger..

I'm still holding judgement until I see polished version of the OS, but I don't really see how ARM-compiled apps are a major advantage as it currently stands.. Its not like we are talking about the Windows ecosystem in which you have a large userbase and enterprise market..

My guess.. just like any OS on a mobile based device today, the OS will live an die with its mobile/tablet centric applications, not its legacy functionality.

You articulated it perfectly, additionally, while unity seems to handle the kind of multitasking people do on tablets and phones it never scaled to workstations particularly well. It was less well received than even Windows 8 even and tons of long time Ubuntu users defected to other user interfaces.

Using Unity on the desktop is like using Android as a desktop OS. Sure you can consume content with it but I'd bet even many Ubuntu employees use other user interfaces for heavy lifting.

Whoever first used the word "jarring" to describe Windows 8 must feel really good right now. I can hardly find a mention of Windows 8 without seeing the word "jarring".

I'm pretty sure it was Kara Swisher, in the very first public demo of Win8, at D9. I went and checked - around 15:10 in the video, Swisher is asking why MS didn't redesign Office for Metro. Swisher is a little tongue-tied but seems to be expressing the idea that after having used the "pretty" Metro stuff for awhile, the switch back to desktop applications is "jarring."